Introduction, notes and activities by Dorothea Barret In the second half of the 19th century, the British Empire, was at its greatest. Imperialism left a lasting mark on Great Britain itself as well as on the ex-colonies. The atmosphere and issues of this bygone age are evoked in Empire Tales , an anthology of stories by some of the most outstanding British writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, Ruyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham, George Orwell and Jean Rhys.